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Abstract

The present study examined the influence of cultural factors in the assessment of African Americans (N = 45) who had suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Following the administration of a neuropsychological test battery and functional outcome measures, participants completed a self-report measure of African American acculturation (African American Acculturation Scale-Short Form; Landrine & Klonoff, 1995). In the first study, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the possible relationship between acculturation and neuropsychological test performance. After controlling for various injury-related (TBI severity, time since injury) and demographic factors (age, sex, and education/occupation), lower levels of acculturation were associated with poorer overall neuropsychological test performance (Overall Test Battery Mean; Rohling, Langhinrichsen-Rohling, & Miller, in press) and lower scores on three of the administered tests (Grooved Pegs, WAIS-R Block Design, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test - Categories). In the second study, standard regression analyses were performed to assess whether inclusion of cultural factors could improve the ability of neuropsychological tests to predict functional outcome following TBI. Less acculturation was related to lower ratings of functional independence on cognitive tasks (Functional Independence Measure-Cognition), greater ratings of disability (Disability Rating Scale), and decreased community integration (Community Integration Questionnaire). These findings suggest that differences in cultural experience may be an important factor in the neuropsychological assessment of African Americans following TBI, and provide support for the hypothesis that cultural factors may partially account for differences among various ethnic-cultural groups on neuropsychological tests.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2001 .K46. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 63-04, Section: B, page: 2061. Adviser: Douglas Shore. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2001.